At a logical break from a task which requires focus, I switch to answering mails and chats. One thing that I find difficult to respond to is a series of messages from different people just saying “Hi” or “Hello” or some other one liners which checks ‘how you doing’? People will let me know why are they pinging only when I respond back with a “Hi”.

People are so used to whatsapp communication in personal lives which happens almost instantaneous especially from a section of people who like to be always on. For people engaged in knowledge work, it is extremely hard to have a full duplex communication. The messaging apps have to be considered async first. This means, say what you want to, just like how you write a letter by post to the person expecting long turn around times.

For a remote friendly workplace, first rule that makes it work is async communication. For that to be effective message exchanges have to be rightly sized so that a receiver can read and respond at one go instead of trying to resume the thread once someone becomes available. People should not be available by default for synchronous communication unless they accept a meeting request.

If you have not been an async receiver or a sender, try this for a while – resist the temptation to answer to emails and instant messages immediately as they arrive, best is to turn off notifications for all messengers or any other application. If you receive a ‘Hi’ only message, respond to it in your next window, but resist the temptation to reply synchronously unless you are available.